Spinning pack assembly for manufacturing composite filaments



- z- 1:969- AKIHIRO 5mm E'T AL 3,458,900

SPINNING PACK ASSEMBLY FOR MANUFACTURING COMPOSITE FILAIIENTS Q Filed July 24, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 0mm 8mm, 0mm! Fvmu.

INVENTORS alkand Aug. 5, 1969 mp- 0 5H|NKA| ET AL 3,458,900

SPINNING PACK ASSEMBLY FOR MANUFACTURING COMPOSITE FILAMENTS Filed July 24, 1967 2 Shuts-Sheet 2 fi llrlfa SW/41,01, mnsum F011 an on T k u 7 mm,

IN VENTOR-b United States Patent 3,458,900 SPINNING PACK ASSEMBLY FOR MANU- FACTURING COMPOSITE FILAMENTS Akihiro Shinkai, Masumi Fujiura, and Tooru Yonezawa, Mishima-shi, Japan, assignors to Toyo Rayon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, Japan Filed July 24, 1967, Ser. No. 655,581 Claims priority, application Japan, July 26, 1966, 41/70,244 Int. Cl. D01d 1/10, 3/00 US. Cl. 188 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Two filtering means, each of them being for each spinning material, spinneret for spinning the materials into 1 This invention relates to a spinning apparatus for composite filaments, and particularly, to a spinning pack assembly for the manufacture of composite filaments.

The spinning portion, namely spinning pack, of the previously proposed spinning apparatus is roughly classified into the following two types. In the first of such types, a pack having a filter means is provided separately for each of fiber-forming polymeric materials, and each of the filtered materials from each pack is conducted to a composite spinneret :for spinning these materials into composite filaments. The second type contains a filter for filtering each material therein and a composite spinneret at the lowermost portion thereof. The difficulties encountered by the first type relate to a non-uniform and nonconsistent distribution of each of the materials, which in turn results in the non-uniform and non-consistent relative amount and position of each component in the products and in the non-uniform denier of the products. In addition, the spinning apparatus disadvantageously becomes large in size. In the second type, the reduction in size of the apparatus can be achieved, but there is a defect that owing to the interference between the materials of composite abnormality is prone to occur. In other words, it is diifcult in view of such a structure to achieve a complete sealing between the materials.

This invention relates to an improvement in the second type of the said spinning apparatus for composite filaments, and has for its object the provision of a composite spinning pack adapted to prevent the filament components :from interfering with each other.

The invention provides a composite spinning pack assembly for use in the manufacture of composite filaments, which comprises a pack housing opened at both ends and having a flange at its lower end; closure means engaged to the upper end of the housing for sealing this end; internal removable components mounted in operative position in said housing, said components comprising a composite spinneret for spinning a first fiber-forming polymeric material and a second fiber-forming polymeric material to produce composite filaments, a first filtering means for the first material, a second filtering means for the second material, and a spacer disposed between said two filtering means; a first duct for transmitting the first 3,458,900 Patented Aug. 5, 1969 material to the first filtering means; and a second duct for transmitting the second material to the second filtering means, characterised in that said housing has a shoulder at its middle portion projecting inwardly and is provided with a plurality of channels therethr-ough for transmitting the filtered first material to the spinneret, a seal being sandwiched in between said shoulder and said spacer, said spacer extending across the inner diameter of the pack and having an upper surface of a shape adapted :for a pool of the filtered first material and provided with a plurality of radially outwardly directing apertures therethrough, each of which apertures is connected with said pool and each of said channels in the housing, said second duct passing through said housing and said spacer and opening at the lower surface of said spacer, and a seal being sandwiched in between said spinneret and said second filtering means.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a cross-sectional view of a composite spinning pack assembly of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a view taken along the line ZZ of FIGURE 1; and,

FIGURE 3 is a diagram showing one example of the spinning apparatus provided with the spinning pack of the invention.

A pack housing 1 is a cylindrical body opened at both ends and having a flange 2 on its inner periphery at the lower end. On the upper surface of the flange Z is disposed a composite spinneret assembly 3, and a filtering means consisting of a pressure plate 4, a screen or gauze 5 and sand 6 resides on the upper surface of the spinneret assembly. A shoulder 7 is provided on the inner periphery of the pack housing 1 and supports a spacer 9 having a conical concave portion at its lower surface and a duct 8 for a viscous spinning material. This duct is connected to a passage 10 for feeding a viscous spinning materials provided on the side Wall of the pack housing 1. An annular concave portion 11 with its center rising is formed on the upper surface of spacer 9, and a distributing aperture 12 extending obliquely downwardly is formed in the said annular concave portion 11. The distributing aperture 12 is open at the upper end of a distributing passage 13 provided in the axial direction Within the side wall of the pack housing 1, and the lower end and the said distributing passage 13 is connected to a horizontally extending nozzle 14 of the composite spinneret assembly 3. A filtering means consisting of a pressure plate 15, screen 16 and sand 17 further resides on the upper surface of spacer 9, and on this filtering means is mounted a spacer 18 having a conical concave portion at its lower surface. The spacer 18 is provided with a duct 19 for a viscous spinning material which is connected to a passage 20 for feeding a viscous spinning material provided in the pack housing 1. On the upper surface of spacer 18 is provided a clamp ring 22 via an O-ring 21, and the clamp ring 22 is secured to a screw 23 on the pack housing 1. A delta ring 24 is inserted in a recess on the periphery of the upper surface of the composite spinneret assembly 3 so as to prevent the interference between two kinds of a viscous spinning material for making composite filaments from the filtering means 25 consisting of the pressure plate 4, screen 5 and sand 6 and a viscous spinning material which flows out from filtering means 26 consisting of pressure plate 15, screen 16 and sand 17, flows down the distributing aperture 12 and distributing passage 13, and reaches the composite spinneret assembly 3. The spacer 9 supported by shoulder 7 on the inner periphery of the pack housing 1 is supported via O-ring 27, and prevents the interference between two kinds of a viscous spinning material for making composite filaments flowing from the upper filtering means 26 and a viscous spinning material from the lower filtering means 25.

The spinning apparatus fitted with the spinning pack of this invention may consist of a melter (not shown), pack 1, heating member 29, gear pumps 30 and 31, and wind-up device 32. The heating member 29 has a hole 33, and pack housing 1 is inserted in the said hole and secured thereto by the engagement of a supporting shoulder 34 projecting at the lower part of the inner periphery of the hole 33 to a supporting projection 35 provided on the outer periphery of pack 1. In the heating member 29 are embedded a pair of sumps 36 and 37, a pair of gear pumps 30 and 31, pipes 38 and 39 connecting the sumps 36 and 37 with the gear pumps 30 and 31, and pipes 40 and 41 communicating with the gear pumps 30 and 31 and open at the inner periphery of the said hole 33. When the pack housing 1 is secured to the hole 33, the feed passages 20 and 10 correspond to the positions of pipes 40 and 41. In order to engage feed passages 20 and 10 tightly to pipes 40 and 41, a screw 42 inserted from outside the heating member 29 is provided. By the rotation of this screw 42, the pack housing 1 is forced in the right direction whereby the engagement of the feed passages 20 and 10 to the pipes 40 and 41 gets tight. When the pack 1 is set at a normal position, the polymers melted by the melter reach sumps 36 and 37, go through the pipes 38 and 39 and the gear pumps 30 and 31, and conveyed to the feed passages 20 and 10 from the pipes 40 and 41. The polymer-flows pass through filtering means 26 and 25, and are associated at the spinneret 3. The associated flow is spun from nozzle 28 to form composite filaments 43 which are wound up by wind-up device 32.

In the spinning operation, two kinds of viscous spinning material are each fed from the feed passages 10 and 20 to the filtering means 25 and 26 and flow through the ducts 8 and 19 provided in the spacers 9 and 18. The viscous spinning materials are filtered by sands 6 and 7 and screens and 16 in the filtering means 25 and 26 and go through the pressure plates 4 and 15. The viscous spinning material from the filtering means 26 flows through the concave portion 11, distributing aperture 12 and distributing passage 13 provided in the pack housing 1, detours the filtering means 25, and flows into the horizontal nozzle 14 of the composite spinneret assembly 3. On the other hand, the viscous spinning material from the filtering means 25 flows into a vertical nozzle 28 of the composite spinneret assembly 3. Here, the two kinds of viscous spinning material are spun from the lower surface of the composite spinneret assembly 3 to form composite filaments.

In this invention, the viscous spinning material from the filtering means 26 is conducted to the horizontally arranged nozzle 14 of the composite spinneret assembly by means of the distributing passage provided within the pack housing. It is therefore only at the positions of O-ring 27 and delta ring 24 that the two kinds of viscous spinning material may possibly interfer with each other. According to this invention, the position of O-ring 27 is sealed with a packing by the pressure of clamp ring 22, and the position of delta ring 24 is self-sealed by the pres- .4 sure of a viscous spinning material fed into the lower filtering means which has a viscosity higher than that of the viscous spinning material fed into the upper filtering means 26. Consequently, it is possible to prevent the interference between the two kinds of a viscous spinning material for making composite filaments completely. In addition, the assembling and the cleaning of the spinneret pack are very easy, and the size of the pack can be reduced. As the passage for the viscous spinning material from the upper filtering means 26 does not exist on the inner periphery of the pack housing, the area for filtration can be made that much larger.

The packing may be of steel or aluminum generally used. As mentioned above, the sealing effect of the packing manifests itself well by making the viscosity of the viscous spinning material from the lower filtering means higher than that of the viscous spinning material from the upper filtering means. It can be further enhanced if the pressure of the viscous spinning material from the lower filtering means is higher than that of the viscous spinning material from the upper filtering means.

We claim:

1. A composite spinning pack assembly for use in the manfacture of composite filaments, which comprises a the second material, and a spacer disposed between said two filtering means; a first duct for transmitting the first material to the first filtering means; and a second duct for transmitting the second material to the second filtering means, characterised in that said housing has a shoulder at its middle portion projecting inwardly and is provided with a plurality of channels therethrough for transmitting the filtered first material to the spinneret, a seal being sandwiched in between said shoulder and said spacer, said spacer extending across the inner diameter of the pack and having an upper surface of a shape adapted for a pool of the filtered first material and provided with a plurality of radially outwardly directing apertures therethrough, each of which apertures is connected with said pool and each of said channels in the housing, said second duct passing through said housing and said spacer and opening at the lower surface of said spacer, and a seal being sandwiched in between said spinneret and said second filtering means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,045,722 6/ 1936 Pienat et 31. 3,028,627 4/1962 McCormick. 3,182,352 5/1965 Baer. 3,353,211 11/1967 Heijnis. 3,407,437 10/ 1968 Lenk.

WILLIAM J. STEPHENSON, Primary Examiner 

